Birthday Month

Do you remember your 7^th birthday?  Family around you showering you with attention, a perfectly-themed cake and balloons?  Your 13^th birthday? Your friends, a special party, and perhaps finally getting a sought after gift you’d been talking about for months?   Your 18^th birthday?  How you celebrated being an ‘adult’ and the elation of thinking you were now finally free from your parents’ claws?  How were those celebrations?  Did you look forward to them with eager anticipation?  What you would do, who would be there, what presents would your friends and family bring?  Were they fun?  Full of excitement?  Did you play, party and laugh till your sides hurt?

My children have had wonderful birthdays and experiences.  We’ve done everything - tea parties, pool parties, paintball parties and sleepover parties at hotels.  I have loved indulging them and they’ve more than enjoyed the festivities and friends.  But to this day I remember a very small and humble party my mom held in my honor when I was 7 or 8.  I could not contain my enthusiasm.  We didn’t usually have parties; we could not afford them.  We had a little home-baked cake and my friends from the neighborhood brought me gifts – I recall a comb, a toothbrush and toothpaste, and a beautifully wrapped pack of cookies – my favorite cookies!  I don’t remember any other parties from my childhood, don’t think I had any other, but I remember that one.  And I still recount that special birthday story to my kids because that day I was happy; really, I was ecstatic. 

So, Hear ye, Hear ye!  All ye Kings and Queens, Knights and Nobles!  I do proclaim this my birthday month!  I’m going to enjoy this birthday month as if I were 7 or 8 years old.  I’m going to look forward to partying with friends and family.  I will not settle for small ‘whatever’ lunches or dinners.  I will request all my extra-special places and favorite dishes.  I will not feel bad if someone wants to cook and bake for me or drive fifty miles to see me.  I will not turn down any gift nor say ‘it’s okay I don’t need anything.’  I will not discuss my weight, my skin or hair.  I will thank God and rejoice that I’m a year older and wiser.  I will laugh till my face hurts.  I will enjoy it all.  Completely.  Fully.  Unapologetically.